Items filed under: Type & Lettering Sightings

We live a few blocks from the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, and every summer the “Back to the Fifties” car show is held there. There’s usually no need to actually pay to get into it to see the cars—our neighborhood is full of them, cruising around, for the duration of the show. But lately I’ve paid to get in, mainly to get shots of the nameplates, or “brightwork” as it is known.

The Chevy “Bel Air” nameplate, from the late-fifties, is my all-time favorite. The design is so simple and stylish. (Photo taken in Saint Paul, Minnesota, June 20, 2009.)

There might be a personal bias to my “Bel Air” preference. We always had Chevys when I was a kid, a ’59 Bel Air and a ’64 Bel Air—the car I learned to drive on and the car I drove during high school in the early seventies. Here’s a cartoon painting I did of it back then as a joke:

(When I was in high school, I had a little side business doing cartoon drawings of cars like this for my friends. I’ll post more of them sometime.)

This was actually for something that was used in shoe stores back in the forties. People put their feet inside an x-ray machine so that they could have their feet “scientifically” measured for shoes. That was before they realized how dangerous it was.

We actually stayed in this motel along historic Route 66 on our way to TypeCon when it was in Los Angeles in 2010. The sign was definitely part of the appeal. Not the best place I’ve ever stayed. But really, what can you expect for $26 per night? On the other hand—free WiFi!